Field Notes for May 2026

 Welcome back to Field Notes!

May 1, 2026

Great Piece of Turf. This garden detail in the front yard contains California Poppy, Lithodora, Strawberries, and Polypodium. The photo reminds me of the Great Piece of Turf watercolor, painted by German master, Albrecht Dürer, in 1503.

A Great Piece of Turf - Bay Area style

May 4, 2026

BBTN Garden Tour - Bayside. My Aunt Char and I had a great time on our first in-person Bringing Back the Natives garden tour. We visited five gardens—three close to the coast and two high up in the hills. We saw so many beautiful native plants, creative ideas for the landscape, and lots of wildlife. We also stopped in at Fat Apples for a slice of pie and tall glasses of water. For all the details see Bringing Back the Natives: 2026.

Aunt Char viewing the beautiful native plants

Learning about the Pink Flowering Currant from signage

May 6, 2026

Treasures for the Garden. While on the Bring Back the Natives garden tour, my aunt and I each received a complimentary packet containing shady California wildflower seeds (Farewell-to-Spring, Punchbowl Godetia, Mountain Garland, Baby-Blue Eyes, Five Spot, Chinese Houses, Grand Linanthus, and Bird's Eye Gila. The seeds are from Larner Seeds, across the Bay in nearby Bolinas, CA. 

Blue Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum)

In addition, I purchased a four-inch pot of Blue Eyed Grass to add to my collection. I just love their cheerful purple and yellow faces.

 

May 9, 2026

OTHG Hike to Fernandez Ranch. Mari and I recently joined the Over-the-Hills Gang hike at Fernandez Ranch, near Martinez, California. We missed Gaymond, who was on tour in Greece at the time! Fernandez Ranch is a historic 7,000-acre property that is part of the John Muir Land Trust.  Over 1,180 acres are open to the public, with multiple trails that wind through the diverse ecosystem, and connect to the 550-mile Bay Ridge Trail and the San Francisco Bay Trail. Hikers, bicyclists, and horses are welcome (as are well-behaved dogs—see the website for rules and requirements). Anthony Fisher led the hike.

Fernandez Ranch staging area

Map of Fernandez Ranch trails

The group met at the Fernandez Ranch parking lot, and followed sections of the Windmill, Woodrat, and Whipsnake trails. We stopped at several viewpoints for breathtaking views. The hills were still green from recent spring rains, and lots of wildflowers were in bloom. The day was overcast and a little chilly, which is ideal hiking weather in my opinion.

Heading out from the Fernandez Ranch staging area

The oaks have room to grow to their full potential

The trail winds through the oaks

One of the best things for me was seeing the magnificent oak trees, which have room to spread their limbs to astonishing proportions. They grow individually and in small communities. We saw several snags, but even they support life and habitat as they slowly decompose over the years. I'm so glad for this preserved land where nature has room operate.

Cookie break with a view at the half-way point

Intrepid hikers at Fernandez Ranch

At the end of the hike, a BurnBot machine was working near the staging area. It is a remote control machine for laying down a suppressing fire line, without endangering crew or sparking an unintended fire. The idea captured my imagination, and makes me want to learn more. Mari and I topped off the hike by celebrating Cinco de Mayo at La Primavera Restaurant in nearby Martinez.

May 11, 2026

Flora and Fauna at Fernandez Ranch. We saw so many wildflowers on our OTHG hike at Fernandez ranch, including the Mount Diablo Sunflower. This perennial herbaceous plant is native only to the San Francisco Bay Area and is primarily found in and around Mount Diablo State Park. It blooms from April to June. We also saw a surprising number of mushrooms, probably due to recent spring rains.

Mount Diablo Sunflower (Helianthella castanea)

Possibly Dog Vomit Slime Mold (Fuligo leviderma) – eww!

May 15, 2026

BurnBot at Fernandez Ranch. After seeing the BurnBot machine in action at Fernandez Ranch, I had to learn more. BurnBot is a California-based startup company that is developing robotic, remote controlled wildfire prevention technology, dubbed the "Roomba for the forest". The machine scorches the earth with fire from below in the front part of the machine, and puts out the fire from the back as it moves forward. Since the machine is remote controlled, it can be sent into dangerous situations without endangering people. The machine has been tested and deployed in California and Oregon to create fire fuel breaks. The John Muir Land Trust has been testing it for controlled burns as a fire management tool.

BurnBot machine
(photo from the BurnBot media collection)

Fireline laid down by the BurnBot machine
(photo from the BurnBot media collection)

My dad would have loved hearing about this machine. He was a retired forestry researcher and always interested in trees, plants, critters, ecology, and machinery.

May 18, 2026

Cooking with Mushrooms. For this month's cooking-with-mushrooms experience, I purchased .5 ounces (14g) of dehydrated Chanterelle mushrooms from the grocery store, and used them to make pizza! I reconstituted the mushrooms in water, sauteed them with leeks, and then topped the pizza dough with the mushroom mixture, and grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese. The pizza was delicious!

Chanterelle is the common name of several species of mushrooms in the Cantharellales order. These fungi are orange, yellow or white, meaty and funnel-shaped, with rounded, forked folds that run almost all the way down the stipe, which tapers down from the cap. These Chanterelles were cultivated in France and distributed by Melissa's Produce (according to the website, one ounce of reconstituted dried mushrooms equals four ounces of fresh mushrooms).

Chanterelle Mushrooms (Cantharellus spp.)

May 20, 2026

Dividing Heucheras. Over the past year I've been learning about Heucheras and how to care for them. They thrive in our landscape, but the leaves need to be thinned out periodically for better air flow, or they develop leaf fungus or rust. Additionally, as new sections grow, radiating out from the root, the plant becomes very gangly. Every two to five years the plant itself needs to be thinned. To do so, dig up the plant and separate the sections. Check for rootlets at the base of each section, and pot in potting soil. Once well rooted, transplant the healthiest sections back into the garden. That's the idea anyway. Wish me luck!

Heuchera maxima with leaves thinned, and sections (yellow lines)
radiating from the root (yellow circle)

Bringing Back the Natives: 2026

Since 2020, the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour has been available in both in-person and online formats, in response to COVID. This year the tour returned to its original format—available only in person! This would be my first time to actually visit the beautiful gardens (up to now I've only seen them via Zoom or YouTube). I immediately thought of my Aunt Char, and invited her to experience several of the gardens with me. Bayside tours were available on Saturday, and Inland tours were available on Sunday.

Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour is back for 2026!

With 72 gardens featured on the tour, it is important to have a plan. I don't think it would be possible to visit them all over the two-day period! Luckily the Bringing Back the Natives team provides excellent resources for identifying your top priorities. Planning materials include garden descriptions, maps showing the location of gardens, a downloadable Google map with all the garden sites identified, and a matrix showing all the features for each garden and green home. Once you register, you receive the addresses for the garden. When putting together our custom tour, I selected several gardens in the Albany and El Cerrito area (Bayside). The gardens ranged from close to the coast to all the way up into the hills.

Native plants in full bloom

Dutchman's Pipevine with informative signage

Pipeline swallowtail caterpillar (black and orange)

The first gardens that we visited were close to the coast and rich with native plants that thrived in their environments. Many of the gardens posted laminated signs that identify the plant, provide habitat and host information, and often a QR code for obtaining more information. For example, we saw signs for Dutchman's Pipevine (Aristolochia californica), which indicated the vine is a host for the pipevine swallowtail butterfly.

Aunt Char studying the plants that surround a water feature

A water feature adds so much to the landscape

This yard has chickens!

Further up in the hills, we saw more native plants all with informative signage. One home had installed black-out shades that protect birds from flying into the windows.

The black-out shades mitigate birds from hitting the windows

Native plants growing in the yard ,with helpful signage

Monarch chrysalis hanging on a raised bed (what a beautiful color)!

After several gardens, Aunt Char and I retreated to Fat Apples in El Cerrito for refreshment. We each had a slice of olallieberry/raspberry pie topped with French vanilla ice cream and a big glass of water to restore our energy. We have enjoyed many garden visits together over the years (I think Filoli is our favorite), as well as excursions to the San Francisco Garden Show at the Cow Palace in Daly City and the San Mateo County Event Center in San Mateo. Neither of us are particularly good at gardening, but we are both passionate about seeing them!

Hillside garden with hardscape and paths

Shady hillside plantings provide a serene entry way

Landscape with a view (notice the Bushmallow shrub in front)

Once rejuvenated we headed higher up into the hills for our final garden stop. This property had commanding views of the bay, great hardscape and paths, and the most serene plantings outside the home's hillside entrance. We were quite taken with the Eastern Bewildering Bushmallow shrub with its lovely pink flowers and sage green foliage (note to self: find out where this native plant is sold).

Native plants live here!

Aunt Char and I had so much fun visiting gardens on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour. We saw beautiful plants, innovative ways to handle challenging garden sites, and wonderful garden details. We learned a lot from this first experience visiting the gardens in person. We'll use that experience next year to visit other Bayside gardens, and expand our range out to the Inland gardens.

Dye Project: Bolete with Titanium Oxalate

For my second mushroom dyeing project, I again decided to use the Boletus edulis that had popped up under the oak tree in our yard after fall and winter rains, and to recycle another cotton dish towel in my stash. The dish towel had been mordanted with alum, and I planned to use titanium oxalate as a mordant additive for this dye experiment.

A colony of Boletus edulis under the oak tree

Greenish-yellow mushroom underside (click on the picture to see the pores)

The dye color for B. edulis comes from the mushroom cap underside, which is very spongy. I separated the spongy underside to harvest the dye material. The color is greenish-yellow.

Extract the Dye

For this project, I had previously extracted the dye, and divided it for three different projects (with the plan to use alum, titanium oxalate, and ferrous sulfate as three separate mordant additives). For information about extracting the dye, see Dye Project: Bolete with Alum, the "Extract the Dye" section. Note that by this time, a film of mold had started to grow on the surface of the dye liquid, but I just skimmed it off. The pH of the liquid still registered 3 (moderately acid).

Dye the Fabric

Dye the fabric with the mushroom dye liquid. For this experiment, I recycled a cotton dish towel that had been mordanted with alum and then solar-dyed with Pittosporum capsules, which had produced a pale yellow (see Dye Project: Pittosporum). I used a third of the dye and added titanium oxalate as a mordant additive, saving the rest of the dye extract for one more future experiment.

Titanium produces a distinct palette (for example it gives a bright orange when combined with tannin). Some Boletus spp., including Boletus edulis, contain tannins among their bioactive compounds. More on titanium oxalate.

Boletus dye pot with titanium oxalate additive

Place the extracted mushroom dye in a dye pot and stir in 1/2 tsp titanium oxalate (.49 ounce) as an additive (7-10% WOF). I tested the pH of the liquid, which now registered 2 (strongly acid). Meanwhile, place the dish towel in clear water to soak for 20-30 minutes, to enable the fibers to soak up the dye.

Heat the mushroom dye to 185 °F (this takes about an hour to reach the temperature). Squeeze out the wet towel, and place it in the dye. Simmer for one hour, maintaining the temperature at 185°. Add water periodically to keep the fabric covered with dye extract.

Steep the cotton fabric overnight

Turn off the heat and let the fabric steep in the dye overnight. The next day, squeeze out excess dye, rinse the fabric, and then run it through the washing machine (cold water only), and hang to dry.

Full disclosure: I wasn't thinking, and actually added a mild textile soap [like Synthropol or Professional Textile Detergent (a.k.a., Dharma Dyer's Detergent)] to the rinse, and then dried the towel in the dryer (I usually just rinse and hang to dry, and then wash in mild detergent two weeks later, giving the dye time to set). It seemed to work OK, but was not my usual process.

Squeeze out excess dye and rinse thoroughly

The resulting color was an orangey-brown when wet, but it dried to a lighter shade. The photo really doesn't capture the actual color. Once again I wondered if the mushroom dye actually dyed the fabric at all, or did it simply cause a slight over-dye reaction with the previous Pittosporum capsule dye? It will be interesting to see the outcome of the future experiment planned, using iron.

The resulting color is a pale orangey-brown